Jessica Conard

EAST PALESTINE — Jessica Conard, now a nationally recognized rail-safety and environmental-health advocate who emerged from the aftermath of the 2023 East Palestine train derailment, recently launched a new program to help communities identify and respond to rail-related threats before disaster strikes.

The initiative, called Disaster Averted: Rail Watch Service, provides grassroots leaders with personalized strategic guidance on rail hazards, chemical transport risks, regulatory systems and effective community organizing.

The service launched during a Community Action for Rail Safety webinar on Dec. 4, hosted in collaboration with the Halt the Harm Network.

Conard became one of the most prominent voices demanding accountability after a Norfolk Southern train — carrying hazardous chemicals — passed through her backyard on fire and derailed shortly afterward on Feb. 3, 2023. The derailment and the intentional release and burn of more than one million pounds of vinyl chloride propelled Conard into national advocacy, pushing for transparency from responding agencies and stronger protections for communities near rail lines.

Her activism quickly expanded beyond rail safety. Through her work exposing the dangers of vinyl chloride and plastics production, Conard became a leading critic of the petrochemical and plastics industries. In 2025, Beyond Plastics, a national organization focused on ending plastic pollution, named her its first-ever Appalachia Director.

Drawing on her experience as both a medical speech pathologist and a frontline advocate, Conard developed the Disaster Averted: Rail Watch Service to help other communities avoid the confusion, misinformation and slow response that followed the East Palestine disaster.

The service is designed for:

• Leaders facing proposed rail terminals or hazardous waste routes.

• Residents seeking to understand chemical transport risks.

• Campaigns confronting toxic industry.

• Existing rail-safety efforts looking for expert insight and peer support.

“Grassroots leaders are often the first to recognize danger — but they’re rarely given the tools to respond strategically,” Conard said. “This program gives them clarity, confidence and a concrete path forward.”

Every engagement begins with a focused 60-minute strategy session via Zoom. The conversation is recorded so participants can revisit the guidance.

During the session, Conard helps communities assess local hazards, understand regulatory language and jurisdiction, identify leverage points and map out concrete next steps. Participants can also add a messaging audit (expert review of up to two public-facing documents) and a brief and action Map (a customized roadmap including talking points, permit tracking, ally contacts and strategic recommendations.)

The service does not replace legal counsel, formal regulatory appeals or long-term campaign management.

The Halt the Harm Network, which supports front-line environmental leaders across the U.S., is partnering with Conard to launch the program. The network regularly hosts webinars and provides infrastructure for campaigns confronting industrial hazards, including plastics, petrochemicals and rail-transport risks.

Residents and local leaders can learn more and apply for the pilot program at: halttheharm.net/service/disaster-averted-rail-watch-service/.

Lessons to learn in Marshall County

On Sept. 18, a school aide at McNinch Primary School in Moundsville reportedly witnessed a horrifying incident in which a teacher grabbed a 6-year-old girl — nonverbal and on the autism spectrum — by the neck with both hands and squeezed. That aide took the girl to the nurse’s office, where photos were taken of red marks on the girl’s neck.

Then, the aide took the correct next step: Reporting the incident to the school’s principal. After that, it seems, Principal Jane Duffy and Erin Cuffaro, district director of special programs, did not have the sense of urgency or desire to do the right thing for the student that the aide and nurse had.

A West Virginia state trooper has viewed video of the incident, and another from Sept. 16. Teacher Kiersten Moses faces a felony count of strangulation, two felony counts of battery and assault of a disabled child and one count of felony child abuse. Duffy faces one misdemeanor count of failure to report child abuse or neglect. And Cuffaro faces eight counts of felony gross neglect of a child creating a substantial risk of death or serious bodily injury; one misdemeanor count of failure to report child abuse or neglect; one misdemeanor count of obstruction of law enforcement, probation, parole, court security, corrections officer with threats of harm; and one misdemeanor count of interference with officers or members and false information.

The trooper also saw a text message allegedly from Cuffaro to Duffy that read “My day is crazy. She did put her hands on (the student’s) neck briefly. Please talk with her about this. Not a verbal reprimand at this point, but tell her to watch putting her hands on children when it is not necessary.”

But Cuffaro is accused of having later deleted that message. Further, she is accused of endangering the other students in Moses’ classroom by not removing her.

These administrators are mandated reporters who should not have let a “crazy day” stop them from obeying the law that requires them to do what they can to protect the students in their charge from further abuse by reporting such incidents, if that is what happened.

“Our top priority is educating children,” said Marshall County Schools Superintendent Shelby Haines.

That may be the case for the vast majority of teachers and administrators. Certainly, the aide and the nurse are to be commended for fulfilling their responsibility to the children in their care.

Meanwhile Moses, Duffy and Caffaro have all pleaded not guilty in Marshall County Magistrate Court. But should they be convicted on the charges they face, parents must expect significant retraining on best practices (and the law) when it comes to interacting with students and reporting mistreatment and abuse. Frankly, it sounds as though Marshall County Schools might want to consider it, anyway.